Three Hundred Words (10 page)

I was definitely
saving myself for when we found somewhere to stop the car.

Mr. Lane had sped
up and we took the next exit, pulling off onto a small country lane. It was
practically deserted as it was, but we went a little bit further, turning on a
single file track before coming across a pull in point. It definitely looked
quiet enough – there wasn’t a house for miles around and it wasn’t the time of
year to be doing anything in the fields.

I didn’t hesitate
before climbing over the gear stick and placing myself in Mr. Lane’s lap,
rubbing my exposed crotch against his still covered erection. Groans spilled
from both our mouths as we rushed to get intimate as quickly as possible. I
lifted myself, wanting to Mr. Lane out of his trousers, but my back hit the
horn.

My cheeks burned
from embarrassment, but Mr. Lane only chuckled, moving his seat backwards so
that it wouldn’t happen again.

And then our
intimacy was back. Heat had flooded me completely, every inch of my body
sensitive as Mr. Lane ran dominating hands over my thighs. I pulled off his
belt with a lot of struggle – I was rushing so much that it actually made the
process slower, and my hands practically quivered with desire as I urged his
cock out of his pants.

There was no need
for much foreplay, just hurried, desperate kisses and his cock slipping into my
entrance without resistance.

I groaned, fingers
digging into his shoulders as I began to move up and down on his length as much
as the space of the car allowed. Lifting up and then slamming back down, my
cries were of complete ecstasy.

Mr. Lane knew how
to bring me right to the edge. He excited me in every way and I longed for that
so, so much.

His hands gripped
my ass tight it would leave finger bruises as he aided my movements, face
buried in my neck as I bounced up and down erratically.

When he was
getting close, his fingers dipped back to their original destination of my
clit. He worked it with just enough pressure to make me want to scream.

After a few
moments, I did. My climax rocked through me, tearing a loud moan from my mouth
as my eyes screwed shut. Mr. Lane released his load inside me and we were both
left to catch our breaths, our bodies in complete unity as I came down from my
high.

I grinned into his
neck, unsure if it was possible for me to feel any happier. If I was allowed to
do this every day without consequence, nothing could bring me down.

As it was, I was
forced to pull away press a chaste kiss to his lips. “This has definitely been
a fun detour.”

Mr. Lane beamed at
me, his face flushed from the exertion and he lavished a longer, more drawn out
kiss onto my lips. I hummed in content. “It definitely was. We should probably
get going, though. Come on.”

I slipped back
into my own seat and cringed when I felt the sticky liquid drooling out of my
entrance. I opened his glove box and was relieved to find a packet of tissues.
“I’m guessing you don’t want this dripping onto your car.”

Mr. Lane looked
horrified as I attempted to clean myself up. I offered him a tissue for his own
mess, wondering why on Earth I wasn’t mortified by this. I really should have
been, but for some reason it was just an amusing end to a perfect session of
sex.

Mr. Lane didn’t do
anything that would have made me at all self-conscious.

I held out the
tissues when I was finished, really not wanting to just throw them out the
window, but no fancying carrying them all the way back to his house, either.
“Tissues degrade like, really quickly, right? Especially with all the rain
we’ve got going on.”

He looked equally
as unimpressed by the idea, but just shrugged. “I think so, yeah. Just lob
them.”

We both giggled as
I threw the semen covered tissues out the window, shaking our heads and getting
lost in the moment.

This evening would
definitely be a night to remember.

Chapter Nine

“Honey, we have to
talk about something.”

Seeing my parents
in the same room together was worrying enough, but I knew what was coming out
of this meeting and it wasn’t good news. “Your father and I…” my mum looked
almost in tears just having to approach the subject and my dad sat by her side,
as stoic as ever. “We’re going to be getting a divorce.”

It wasn’t like I
hadn’t been expecting it. What other solution was there? “Okay.” My voice was
emotionless and I stared straight between the two of them.

What else was there
to say? They were going to do it and I was going to have to deal with it. That
was all. “We just… thought you should know.”

I tugged on the
end of my badminton kit. They could have timed in a bit better. “Well, now I do
know. Thank you for telling me.” I stood up, grabbing my rucksack and heading
towards the door, even though it was going to leave me at least twenty minutes
early. “I’ve got to head off for this tournament. I’ll see you later, whichever
of you is around.”

They both opened
their mouths to argue and I paused, waiting for their words, but nothing came
out. And so I left.

It was a long walk
to school and normally I’d have caught the bus, but today I welcomed the misery
of plodding one foot after the other with my headphones blasting music so loud
it would probably do permanent damage.

That was perfect
for this situation where I felt like my entire life was falling apart around
me.

What was I going
to do at Christmas, when the three of us didn’t sit down and have crackers and
presents and my parents always managed to get some part of the Christmas dinner
horribly wrong? Who was I going to live with? Who was going to be living where?

I wrapped my arms
around myself and I realised I’d forgotten my jacket.

I was pretty numb
anyway, the cold probably wouldn’t make much difference.

It was lucky I
didn’t wear much make-up to play badminton, because it would have been smeared
all over my face from the amount of times I’d rubbed my eyes. I’d been doing it
to desperately stop any tears, but my eyes had become so red and sore anyway
that it probably didn’t matter.

I may as well have
just shrivelled up on one of the benches and let myself sob until I didn’t have
any tears left.

Still, I pushed
through and made it to school. My walk had been so slow-going that I ended up
being almost on time anyway. Mr. Lane was already waiting in the sports hall,
attempting to shoot basketball hoops. He wasn’t being overly successful.

I attempted to
walk back out of the room and hide in the toilets or something, but Mr. Lane
had spotted me and so I was forced to take a seat on the floor and watch him.
He dropped the basketball and came to stand in front of me with a concerned
face. “What’s up? Are you okay?”

I’d avoided Mr.
Lane for two weeks. I’d told him I was practising for badminton at every waking
moment, which was technically true, but I’d also been putting off making a
decision as to what we could do about our predicament.

I was putting off
telling him that we really had to stop.

Getting caught up
and lost in the moment was one thing, but we had to avoid the moment in the
first place. It was stupid and wrong and dangerous. And then there was all other
feelings tied up in there with self-hatred and the guilt that swarmed me every
time I looked at Luke.

Still, he’d moved
on to someone else already and so that made me feel slightly better. Even if
she was a rebound, he’d be over me in no time. I just really hoped I hadn’t
done any permanent damage to his attitude in relationships, because I was certain
I’d changed mine forever.

“My parents are
getting divorced.” There was no point in lying to him. The words felt dry in my
mouth. I never wanted to have to repeat them. I didn’t want them to be real.
“They just told me.”

Mr. Lane was
incredibly conscious of the fact we were in school. He looked so desperately
like he wanted to hug me, but both of us held back. He offered a sincere “I’m
sorry,” instead.

I shrugged.
“Nothing you can do about it. Nothing anyone can do about it. My dad was a dick
who cheated on my mum. That’s all there is to it.”

Just like I was a
dick who’d cheated on my boyfriend. There was no hiding that I was just as bad
as him. “You’re not just as bad as him.” Mr. Lane read my thoughts. It must
have been all over his face. “You’d been going out with Luke for less than six
months. It’s not the same.” His voice was such a low whisper I could barely
hear him.

I shrugged again,
letting my shoulders fall flat. I didn’t believe that for a moment. Cheating on
someone was always bad, no matter when in the relationship it happened. Still,
there was no point in arguing it somewhere we might get caught, so I let the
topic drop.

I let the
conversation dissipate entirely by putting my earbuds in and curling myself
into a ball. Raising my knees to my head and wrapping my arms around myself, I
effectively shut everyone out, including him.

My music blasted
out and I was left to wallow in white noise.

My parents were
leaving each other.

When someone
tapped me on the shoulder I jumped, looking up and realising that my entire
team had arrived, coach included. I’d hoped the redness around my eyes had
faded, but given the way everyone was looking at me, I apparently still looked
like a complete mess.

They knew exactly
what my performance was going to be like today.

I dragged myself
to my feet and turned off my music, noting with a cringe how loud it had been.
That had probably been incredibly annoying. I didn’t listen to any of the pep
talk our coach was giving, even though half of it was about weaknesses we
should be looking out for. I wouldn’t be much use, anyway.

Because I had
drastically improved. I’d really worked hard at it, every day, and I knew I’d
gotten better. And now this inevitable bombshell was enough to crush all that
hard work and render it useless.

I could barely
stand up, never mind play a game.

The only time I
really came to life was when we walked towards the cars. This time, I took the
lead, making sure I got the car that Mr. Lane wasn’t driving. I just wanted to
sit in the back with my headphones in and ignore the world, not feel pressured
into talking to the man constantly on my mind.

My team mates
grimaced at me, before one of them decided that Mr. Lane was pretty hot, maybe
travelling with him could be fun.

I tried to block
that out and took my seat in the back of the car.

“Are you feeling
okay?” My coach checked before I’d been allowed to shove my headphones in.
“You’re looking rough.”

That was
definitely a flattering way of putting it. “Fine, just some family stuff.
Hopefully it won’t make me play too badly. I’m just going to try and sleep,
anyway, if that’s okay.” It was a four hour drive down to London and there was
no way I could stay awake for that long.

I’d been kept up
until the early hours listening to my parents’ shouting.

“Oh, no problem.
I’ll wake you up when we get there if you’ve managed to sleep.”

I didn’t bother to
fake a smile since she couldn’t see me. “Thanks.”

And it was
surprisingly quickly that I fell into a restless sleep. The morning had been
horribly draining so far, even if I’d not done anything physical yet.

***

I woke up feeling
nice and refreshed physically and still completely drained mentally. The first
thing on my mind when I woke up was the fact my parents were officially
splitting up and it stayed that way as we pulled into the gates of a very posh
school.

They were wrought
iron gates, covered in gorgeous ivy, and letting us into a compound walled off
by ten feet high bricks and barbed wire. It went from a dreary exterior to the
most beautiful interior I’d ever seen. Cut grass and gorgeous flowers, old
building after old building that were probably furnished to perfection.

Going to school
here must have seemed like living in a dream.

Right now it just
felt intimidating. At any other date I might have walked around this school in
awe, just taking things in, and without the pressure I probably would have
enjoyed being here.

“It’s a pretty
place,” my coach admired, having noticed I’d woken up. “I’ve never been here
before. Hopefully I’ll be coming for many years after this one.”

It was likely,
coach had done wonders for our team. The rest of the girls already had natural
talent, but she’d boosted them to another level. “It is pretty,” I agreed.

Mr. Lane had probably
got here a bit quicker, he tended to drive a bit recklessly from what I’d seen
the last time we went to a tournament. I was surprised he’d been allowed to
drive us at all – clearly no one had actually gone on a test run with him.

The car park was heaving
when we pulled in and I realised, with horror, why. It wasn’t just that friends
and family had come to watch, but there were real stands inside their sports’
hall. This was a proper tournament and there were just fans of the sport coming
to see us play.

I supposed I was
silly to think that wasn’t the case when it came to national finals.

Mr. Lane and the
rest of my team were waiting by the back entrance for us and they all looked
absorbed in conversation. My jealousy twinged, but I really tried to reign it
in. When I’d been reading up on the psychological effects following cheating
someone, paranoia had been one of the top ones.

I really didn’t
want to fall prey to those things if I could help it.

I just had to be
strong and focused. Embarrassing myself in front of all those people would be
so horrid.

Coach was quick to
start speaking the moment we were all together, ringing off strategies that we
should be playing. I made an effort to take it in this time – all the people
had scared me silly.

The girls in the
sports hall looked much the same as the ones we’d faced in the county
tournament, so at least that wasn’t overly intimidating right now. The stands
definitely were. A lot of eyes fell on us when we entered and although the
volume was at the same level as before, people were probably talking about us
now.

I kept my gaze on
the ground and trailed after my team to a bench where we could leave our
rucksacks.

The national
finals was a two day event. Today we played in heats; there were too many teams
here for a round robin. Tomorrow, there’d be quarter finals, semi-finals and
the finals. Also, a third place match. It was the top three teams who went on
to play the European finals.

The European
finals were in Malta. I couldn’t say I was too opposed to the idea of getting
there, even if it was pretty unlikely.

We huddled, but I
was swamped with memories of my family once more. My parents had asked if they
could come and watch today and I’d actually told them I wouldn’t have minded,
but they weren’t here. It was probably far too expensive for them to manage.

But plenty of
families were here, ready to watch their kids play, or just coming for a nice
day out to try something different. Plenty of smiling couples in the stands,
laughing and joking and not divorcing.

I sighed and tuned
back in to whatever the coach was saying, only to realise the hall had fallen
silent. It was time for the same rigmarole of announcing the teams and telling
to us have “good games.” I spent that time wondering what my parents were doing
right now.